See As I Run
by H.P.Witchcraft
Summary: Summary and Trigger Warning Inside, Not a Lemon, rated M for triggers (I'm coming back for this story when I get a new computer, I had a few more chapters done and lost them when it crashed)
1. Summary and Note

**Hello everyone! This is my first story for Embassy Row! I have a bunch of other stories for a whole assortment of books and shows ranging from Percy Jackson to My Hero Academia to the Selection Series to the Gallagher Girls (Most of my stories are about Gallagher Girls). I have loved writing about everything else, and I was sad to see the lack of fics for Embassy Row because it is one of my favorite series in existence! I decided to finally start putting this story out after a lot of consideration, because its kind of dark. I'll do a whole synopsis below but it deals with a whole host of other issues than just Grace's mental health. This is a trigger warning, this story could spark something awful in people, I can't say exactly what the trigger is though without ruining the whole plot line, so if you have triggers this is probably the time to leave. I'll leave you all with a synopsis, thank you for reading if you stick around and I hope you like my version of See How They Run: See As I Run**

When Spencer steals a kiss from Grace in the woods, that is not the start or the extent of his cruelty, he does more. When Alexei finds out he gets angry, much angrier than Grace has ever seen him before, and he starts to scare her. Jamie stops the fight, but starts it again himself when he finds out what his so called "friend" did to his little sister. Grace watches in horror, unable to move or speak or try to stop them until Lila breaks up the fight and sends everyone home. Jamie and Alexei threaten to kill Spencer and then leave him on the island while they take Grace home. When Spencer is later found dead, the pair become the prime suspects, old friends who plotted to murder the man who assaulted their respective sister and girlfriend. Grace struggles with trust in people afterward, while also working to keep her brother and her boyfriend hidden away and solving Spencer's murder to clear their names.


	2. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone, thanks for the comments and for reading if you're here! i hope you all enjoy the story!**

When I woke, my throat burned, it was painfully dry and my voice was no more than a hoarse wheeze. The doctor later called it inflamed. My hands were warm, each held tightly in the grasp of another.

Jamie sat in a chair to my right, bags darker than the bruises up and down my forearms weighed heavily on his sagging features. He wasn't the handsome prince of a boy that all the girls chased after. That I'd chased after. He looked like he aged a decade since he left for West Point a few months ago.

Alexei held my other hand with both of his. He sat on the floor, his head laying on my bed beside our hands. His hair was messed, like when Jamie used to ruffle it, and his nose was scrunched up. Did I smell? How long had I been here? Why was I suddenly self conscious? Those questions remained unanswered for a long time.

Warm light filtered into the room, streaking it with golden light. I could see my reflection in the mirror on the opposite wall and for once my hair looked beautiful, golden and wavy. I wanted to reach out to the girl in the mirror, tell her not to make my same mistakes. I wanted to hold my mother when she was my age and tell her to get rid of me before it was too late. I wanted to save the girl smiling in the photos on the bathroom wall. _Her_ bathroom wall. I could almost hear her voice, calling my name, humming quietly while she twirled around the room. _Her_ room. She would always be it's one true owner.

I was stunned into submission when my eyes fell back to the mirror. With the rising sun's glare blinding me, even I could have been tricked. Most could have been fooled into believing I was beautiful, like her, was her, but besides my hair I was disastrous. I looked worse than when I'd fallen from the German wall into the Canadian Courtyard.

_Knock. Knock._

I whipped my head around, away from the mirror, the beautiful façade slipping away. Ms. Chancellor stood in the doorway, a soft and gentle smile was on her face. I could feel it's warmth like I felt the sun rays.

"Good morning, Grace." Her voice made the smile more obviously born of sympathy and worry. It didn't feel as warm anymore.

I wanted to wave, but I didn't dare. To move my hands would be to wake the boys. I wanted to speak, but my attempt resulted in nothing more than a few strangled and foreign noises. I had so many questions, but all I could manage was a smile, a weak copy of her original warmth.

"Would you like a glass of water, dear?"

I nodded and a throbbing pain engulfed my head. I couldn't help pulling my hands away from the boys, throwing them up to clutch my head. I felt hot tears roll down my cheeks and felt the bed dip on my left side as Alexei moved closer, hoping to inspect the newly awakened Gracie.

_"Grace? Gracie, honey?"_

"No!" I screamed, but it too was only a strangled cry, "Stop it! Please!"

"Gracie." Jamie called for me, moving closer. What was he doing here?

"Grace!" Alexei held my head in his hands trying to recapture my attention.

"Grace, dear?" Ms. Chancellor had floated over from the door.

_"Gracie..."_ the voice of a ghost.

All their voiced blended together until only the strongest remained. I could tell you which voice belonged to each person and whose I most wanted to reply to, to hold on to like my life depended on it, but the haunting strength of the first and last calls sent me spiraling.

My name continued to ring out through the room, over and over and over, dozens if not hundreds of times, but only in her voice, my mother's. It haunted me, waiting to strike me dead, take revenge, as soon as no one was looking. Her voice was like a phantom, and so were the smoke and flames hiding around dark corners and crowding behind every picture and memento of her. The room was like an incinerator and I was dying in its embrace, no matter how lovingly she held me.

I felt warmth spread across my cheeks as I cried harder, and soon the voice disappeared, the flames receded, and the smoke was gone.

"Gracie!" The only noise left was this single voice speaking my name. It was deep, thick with worry, and harshly accented.

I blinked, hard and fast, and the room came back to focus. Alexei sat beside me, leaning over my reclined torso, his face less than a foot from my own, my shoulders in a grip so tight his knuckles were white.

Like a reflex, my arms were up between us, guarding my face. It felt like muscle memory, but when my body had learned it was a mystery. I squeezed my eyes shut, and he sat back, giving me space.

When I opened my eyes again, my soaked cheeks had been softly wiped dry, presumably by his damp sleeve. He soon noticed my eyes darting around, caught up in reality's current reformation. He gently put a hand beneath my chin and called my name again.

Reality was gone, so were Ms. Chancellor and Jamie, who I still could not be sure was actually here. Everyone and everything was out of sight, out of mind as his eyes pierced my soul and my walls imploded. I was terrified and he could see it all, everything, but now I'm not so sure why I was scared, because Alexei could always see right through me.

Maybe it was because for the first time in three years, since I killed my mother, I was vulnerable. I was hurting in front of Alexei for the first time since my leg was bloody and broken, my face pressed, firm and secure to his chest, wrapped in loving arms. That moment had long since passed. My leg is okay now, at least I think it is, I'm not in Alexei's arms, and I'm not the only vulnerable one.

Somewhere along the way, his walls had imploded too. Or maybe my own implosion had destroyed his too. For the first time ever, I can see how terrified and desperate he is.

He lowered himself so he was laying beside me in my mother's big pink canopy bed, and kicks off his sand crusted boots before pulling his legs up too. He puts his arm around my shoulders, and after a while he turns his head. His nose is pressed into my hair, eyes shut, and his grimace fades to a soft smile.

He murmurs nearly unintelligibly in my ear, and I could swear he says, "I do not want to lose you again."

I chalk it up to wishful thinking.


	3. Chapter 2

**Hey guys! I'm already back with another chapter! I hope you all like this one! Thanks for reading and enjoy the story!**

We sit, not talking for a while, but I want to. As soon as I do, however, I descend into a coughing fit.

After Alexei hurriedly gives me a glass of water, I take big gulps. Even though it burns more now and I can still feel a large lump in the back of my throat, I ask, "When did Jamie get here?"

He looks at me strangely, and not with the _she's lost her marbles_ look, with the how hard did you hit your head exactly look. I am very familiar with both.

"Gracie, he's been here since yesterday. You don't remember seeing him here?"

"No."

"What about Lila's party on the island last night? Do you remember it?"

"No, I don't remember any of that." I look at him and see the bruise on his high cheek bone and the cut on his bottom lip. "What are you doing here anyway? I though you and your father went back to Russia."

"We did, but I'm back now," he held me just a bit tighter, "Everything's going to be different now. My father's to be the new ambassador."

"Oh."

"Yeah." His smile is sheepish.

We sat quietly again, but this time before either of us could say another word the door burst open and a flood of people came through.

Jamie and Noah walked side by side, half-heartedly conversing about soccer. Megan was behind them texting and Ms. Chancellor set a tray on the dresser by the door. While Alexei hurriedly moved to a respectable distance for a brother's-best-friend, Megan opened the window and let Rosie in.

"Hey, everyone, "I said a bit awkwardly, resettling myself in an entirely upright position.

"Morning, sunshine!" Noah laughed, gently ruffling my hair, and I left out a small and sweet giggle. Noah gave me a strangle look for just a split second, then gave me the same smile Ms. Chancellor had given me earlier. Sympathetic.

Megan and Rosie sat on the foot of my mother's bed, Jamie and Noah in chairs to my right, and Alexei stood up and walked toward the door. I wanted to call for him not to leave. Thankfully, he wasn't leaving, just bringing Ms. Chancellor's oatmeal, fruit, and water tray to me. He left it on my bedside table and retook his position on the floor.

"So Grace," Rosie said, "what happened last night? Are you okay? All anyone would say was that you were injured." She shot glares at both Jamie and Alexei.

"I think I'm alright, Rosie, thanks, but I don't have any answers for you. I don't remember yesterday at all."

"She didn't even remember Jamie's arrival," Alexei said, which obviously told the rest of the room more than it was telling me.

"You hit your head, Gracie," Jamie broke the silence, "and made us worry like crazy."

"Where did all these bruises come from then?"I asked.

"I don't know, Gracie. Maybe Alexei and I were a little rough with you when we were trying to bring you back home."

I don't know what happened the night before, but I know that tone. It's Jamie's I'm-not-technically-lying voice. As soon as he leaves I'll tell the others. We were all clueless together unless they all got suddenly good at acting, so maybe we could figure this out together too.

A knock on the door interrupted the awkward silence and my thoughts. It was Ms. Chancellor, back again in my mother's doorway, and whatever she had to tell us was not good.

"James, your grandfather needs to see you in his study," she paused, "Now, please."

He got up without a word and left, but not before putting a quick, protective kiss on my forehead.

When the door was closed and I couldn't hear his footsteps anymore, I turned to Alexei and said, "What really happened? Jamie is a horrible liar."

"That was a lie?" Noah seemed astonished as if he'd never met a good liar before. He had no idea Jamie was so practiced in the art of deception.

"It's a sibling thing. I always know when he's lying." Her haunting voice emerges from the background noise and I'm quick to add, "Or at least I thought I did."

"Really? I guess Lila's never lied to me." He smiles really big until Megan bursts his bubble.

"Oh, she's lied to you, you're just insanely gullible."

We all laughed a bit at that. We have fun, if just for a moment and don't sweat the serious side, like why did Jamie leave me alone with Alexei. I thought he would never leave before he left for West Point, but since he's returned, I almost want him to go back. Far away from his sister, the bomb, who is about to detonate and take most of Embassy Row with her.

"When the room gets serious again, I look Alexei in the eyes and say, "If you lie to me like Jamie, so help me! I will get out of this bed and kick your butt."

"Gracie, I-"

_"Gracie the truth is_... you better start again with that if you know what's good for you."

He sighed, looked at the ground, and muttered in Russian. Probably a prayer for Jamie not to kill him for spilling the beans.

"At Lila's party last night, you went off into the woods."


	4. Chapter 3

**Hello everyone! I'm back with another chapter! Thanks for reading and enjoy the story!**

**TRIGGER WARNING(scroll to the bottom if you need to see what type)**

_"At Lila's party last night, you went off into the woods."_

The start of the story was already unsettling. Why was I in the woods? What was I thinking?

"Noah saw Spencer follow you and decided to find me."

"Who is Spencer?" I asked. Had I just forgotten him too?

"Your brother's friend from school." Alexei told me, "I had been talking to Jamie when Noah came to warn us. Jamie laughed it off and explained to Noah that he was your brother and he asked Spencer to follow you. I did not so easily trust him, so I went off to find you."

He kept speaking but I couldn't hear him. I did, however, hear the crunch of rocks and plants beneath my feet, familiar party music fading away, and felt the undergrowth brushing against my bare legs. The room was dark and enormous trees sprung up around me. The moon and beam of the flashlight that appeared in my hand were the only sources of light.

I could hear two people, a boy and a girl, having a conversation somewhere in the darkness. I felt my flight reflexes start to kick in, all I wanted was to find them and find safety in numbers. As I searched for them, I stumbled into some ancient ruins. Upon further inspection, I found the Society's mark etched in the tall wall in front of me.

After a few steps, I tripped over vines and overturned rocks. I grasped around in the air, searching for something to help me regain my footing, but there was nothing. When I hit the ground, my flashlight fell out of my hands and skidded across the floor, far out of my reach. I struggled to get up. Had something fallen on me? I looked back to see and only found darkness. The rest of the room was pitch black too, my flashlight lost to the ruins' depths.

I put my palms down, trying to stand, but there was something, no... someone on me. I was flipped on my back, wrists gripped tightly, holding me down. I screamed.

When I felt my captor's hands begin to wander, the tears started to stream down my cheeks. I wanted to scream again and again until someone, anyone heard me, saved me, but I was paralyzed with fear. I could feel my head bang against the cold stone beneath me and feel the man above me. All I could do was beg and plead and apologize.

The man on top of me was a mystery until I gave up. I stopped begging for someone who could actually reach me and started calling for people who would never come. My mother. My father. Alexei.

My cries for Alexei seemed to tick off my captor.

"Alexei," I cried, my voice hoarse and nearly silent, "please...please help me!"

"Too bad, Gracie," the man said, "Comrade Alexei will never hear you all the way in Russia."

_Spence._

The man on top of me, tormenting me, was none other than my brother's best friend. Spence who'd shown up at the embassy yesterday morning with Jamie. Spence who'd been nice to me. Spence who'd offered to take some of my food to keep Grandpa and Ms. Chancellor off my back. Spence who taught me to hide what I didn't want in my potatoes. Spence who'd tagged along with Jamie in the hopes of seeing his ancestral home.

I begged again and again, but he just put a hand over my mouth and told me to shut up. He didn't want to hear me say his name. To hear me beg him to stop. To hear me ask him what Jamie would think.

I cried and screamed as loud as I could, and eventually, I heard Alexei. I thought I was dreaming, that maybe I was just imagining he was coming to whisk me away. I heard his harsh accent calling my name. I knew he wasn't there but I took the chance to scream louder than I thought possible.

Spence hit me after that, one good hit, right across my cheek. It stung but otherwise, it did no damage. I couldn't hear Alexei anymore, all my strength had left me with that final scream.

Before my consciousness left me too, Spence's weight on top of me disappeared and I was held firmly, by a warm and broad set of shoulders and arms.

Suddenly, I could see my room again, and I was shaking. I was crying and could feel Alexei's arms holding me securely once again. His shirt was balled in my fists, my face pressed into his shoulder, and his face pressed into my neck as he muttered apology after apology in every language he knew.

Noah's hands were pressed over his face, but I could still see his horrified expression. Megan had her hands pressed firmly over Rosie's ears and she was holding back the brimming tear in her eyes. Jamie stood in the doorway, he couldn't even look at me. I deserved this, I killed his mother, and now I had experienced something similarly horrible.

"I promise, Gracie, if I see that bastard again I'll kill him," Alexei swore to me, holding me an arm's length away, starring into my eyes.

"You're too late I'm afraid," Ms. Chancellor said from beside Jamie in the doorway, "As your grandfather and I just told your brother, Grace, John Spencer was found dead, washed up on the beach this morning."

**Sexual Assault trigger**


	5. Chapter 4

**Hi everyone! I'm sorry its been so long... I kind of got caught up with other projects, so comments like the one I received asking where the next chapter is important, especially when I've been away for so long. Didn't mean for it to happen but I got on sort of an... Attack on Titan kick and started writing a story about it(Highly recommend it). I have attachment issues. I get attached very easy to big flashy new ideas. Anyway, here's the new chapter! Thanks for reading and enjoy the story!**

Chapter 4

"This is your one and only chance to come clean with me. If anyone in this room, American or not, has something to confess about last night, tell me now. I will help you. We can figure this out together." Ms. Chancellor made eye contact with each of the other people in the room, "Anyone?"

She wouldn't look at me, but she eyed everyone else suspiciously, especially Jamie and Alexei. Noah, Megan, and Rosie weren't suspects. They had no idea what happened last night. They had no reason to do anything to Spence. Jamie and Alexei on the other hand, they had the ability, due to their backgrounds, dad being an army ranger and Mr. Volkov being ex-KGB, and the motive, proven by Alexei's black eye and Jamie's busted lip.

The only issue with Ms. Chancellor eyeing them like that, was it told me that even though I thought she could swear to their whereabouts the whole night, if they had left out the window, killed Spence and returned through the window, she never would have known. She can say they sat in my room all night, she was there for the most part. I found out later that there was a 90 minute period where the both of them were unaccounted for by everyone except themselves. For two well trained boys, practically men, that was more than enough time to track down Spence, do what they needed to and come back.

What if they had done it? What if my brother and his best friend killed the boy who... assaulted me? I didn't want to believe it happened, but it was possible, and I have to trust that since its possible, it might have happened.

"I didn't touch him!" Alexei was the first to say something. It was a half yell, more loud out of sheer offense that Ms. Chancellor thought he'd done it. If I were Alexei I would have been offended too. There was no way they would have found the body if the two of them had put their heads together to kill him.

Jamie nodded his agreement, "I didn't either, and besides the two of us were together, here, with Gracie all night."

Ms. Chancellor had made herself clear and we all knew it. This time for coming clean was now over if any of them had been involved. Judging by the fact that nobody said anything, no one had done anything. Ms. Chancellor was one of the few adults I sort of trusted. She'd shot the prime minister of Adria for me. I had to trust her.

"You all have alibis for the night?" she asked.

"Everyone nodded, except me. I didn't need to find an alibi, everyone knew where I was. Unconscious in my bed, the victim of a violent attack. As soon as word left the embassy about this, the whole town would be whispering.

Ms. Chancellor turned fro her spot in the doorway to look down the hall.

"As I told you, inspector, they are all innocent with the proper alibis to prove it."

Jamie moved from his spot by the doorway, sitting on my other side. I didn't want anyone else to touch me. If they did I was fracture, break, crumble to dust. I couldn't lose what little dignity I had left. I need my brother and our best friend. I grew up chasing them around the tops of walls, and now they were my walls, my last line of defense.

Jamie moving from the doorway made room for another man to enter, the inspector.

"Hello children." he smiled, taking his hat off and placing it on top of the dresser by the door. He pulled my mother's desk chair out and took a seat in the puddle of dust. I guess he hadn't noticed it. Before he'd sat down, he'd dragged it over to the left side of my bed, and put it where Alexei had been sitting on the ground.

His partner, was a pretty woman with dark hair, caramel skin, and a big scowl that never seemed to leave her face. He was friendlier looking, but he scared me more. I wanted him to back away. He'd invited himself into the last safe space I had, my mother's room. With her photos and her books and her clothes.

"Good morning, I'm sorry we bring bad news," the woman said, "My name is Shanyle Plusons and that is my partner-"

"Allibastar Yaneef." the man said, "We've already interviewed most of the children from the party, you are the lasts on our list."

"I'll take..." Inspector Plusons read off a list of names that she certainly didn't need. She knew who she was supposed to talk to, who she was supposed to distract, "Noah, Megan, and Rosie. With me please." she motioned for them to follow her out of the room.

Noah grabbed my hand, giving in a perfectly strong squeeze and a weak, sympathetic smile. Rosie and Megan leaned over to give me hugs before following Noah out the door.

"Alright," Inspector Yaneef settled himself into his chair, "Do you boys mind taking a walk with Ms. Chancellor?"

"I'm not leaving," Jamie said. It wasn't something to be debated either. This was sibling 101, never leave the younger ones alone with authority, you never know what they'll say.

"Neither am I." Alexei turned so he was sitting facing the inspector, an arm around my shoulder.

"I don't want them to leave." I said, gripped Alexei's shirt a little harder and grabbed Jamie's hand giving it a firm squeeze. I do not want to be alone with this man, any man really.

"I guess you have your answer." Ms. Chancellor told the inspector who shrugged his shoulders in the universal sign for 'what can you do?' She took Noah's seat on the other side of my bed.

"We'll start with you, Mr. Blakely. What was the fight about?"

"There was a fight?" I stage whispered to Alexei.

He nodded and the inspector played a video from his phone. Jamie had Spence pinned in the sand. Kids had made a circle around them, no, us. I spotted myself, laying in the sand, my shirt ripped, a bleeding head, bruises and scratches covering my exposed legs and forearms. Alexei's heavy flannel shirt was wrapped around me.

Noah Megan and Rosie were sitting in the sand around my unconscious body, and Alexei was jumping into the fray. The look on his face scared me.

Jamie screamed about killing Spence and Alexei was arguing he would kill him first. Lila broke the fight up soon after and sent everyone home. The video ended.

"Its up to Gracie," Jamie said, "This is her business. She chooses who gets to know." If I said no, then it would be cone of silence.

The inspector looked at me and I looked at Alexei. He pulled my fist from his shirt and held it gently, with a small nod. It was up to me. Would they talk or would I give the order for them to clam up?

"Spence arrived yesterday with my brother. The two of them followed me to a party last night, and Jamie asked Spence for help keeping an eye on me. I'd d heard about the ruins on the island and wanted to see them for myself. Spence followed me into the woods and ... and he... he um..._assaulted_... me."

That was a very diplomatic way to put it.

I continued, "If Alexei hadn't come to look for me after Noah saw Spence follow me... I don't know what would have happened. I'm not even sure if I would have survived the night."

"I'll ask you this once, Ms. Blakely," the inspector said, "Just to ensure we are all very clear about your version of last nights events. "Were you raped?"

I swallowed hard, tears welling and spilling over down my pale, bruised cheeks, as I told him, "Yes."


End file.
